The University of North Carolina
Faculty Teaching Workload Report
2012
The University of North Carolina
General Administration
June 2013
Executive Summary
• Changes in Average Teaching Loads: Since 2008, nine campuses have increased
the average number of sections taught by faculty and nine have increased the average number of student credit hours (SCHs) taught by faculty.
• Teaching Productivity: By sector, UNC’s Research High & Doctoral Universities, Master’s Universities, and Baccalaureate Colleges are, on average, more productive than institutions in their Carnegie classification. Faculty work at UNC’s
Research Intensive (High & Doctoral) Universities is at the same level as the
Carnegie average.
• Teaching Standards, All Faculty: Using preliminary data from the Delaware National Study of Costs & Productivity, all campuses were above the UNC Board of
Governor’s minimum teaching loads.
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Introduction
UNC General Administration (UNC GA) recognizes that teaching is only one part of faculty work and that the appropriate mixture of teaching, research, and service may vary across
institutional types, disciplines, fields, and even programs. To comply with UNC Policy 400.3.4
“Monitoring Faculty Teaching Workloads,” this report focuses only on the teaching role of faculty.
The policy, as amended on January 11, 2013, states:
For reporting purposes the Board of Governors (BoG) will annually review
data from the National Study of Instructional Costs & Productivity (The Delaware Study) of teaching loads for full time equivalent faculty within the University. The Delaware Study provides comparable teaching data at the discipline level using the following faculty categories: regular tenure stream, other
regular, supplemental and teaching assistants. Teaching load is derived by the
number of organized class courses a faculty member is assigned in a given semester. Courses that are not conducted in regularly scheduled class meetings,
such as “readings,” “special topics,” “problems” or “research” courses, including dissertation/thesis research, and “individual lesson” courses (typically
in music and fine arts) are excluded from the Teaching Load calculation.
Beyond the sector and institutional data presented here, the Delaware Study provides UNC
GA with a unique comparable dataset that allows us to examine the nuances and patterns of faculty
work at the program level.1 Per BoG policy, standard annual teaching loads will be differentiated
to accommodate the diverse missions of the individual campuses as articulated by Carnegie Classification. Standard faculty teaching load measured by number of organized class courses a faculty
member is assigned in a semester is the following:
• Research Universities - Very High Research Activity: 2
• Research Universities - High Research Activity I: 2.5
• Master’s Colleges & Universities - Large & Medium: 3
• Baccalaureate Colleges - Arts & Sciences: 4
• Baccalaureate Colleges - Diverse Fields: 4 1 For more information on the data collected, definitions, and methodology of the Delaware Study, consult: http://
www.udel.edu/IR/cost/definitions.html
2
The following pages present the faculty workload section averages for the category “All
Faculty,” contrasting the average sections taught at UNC institutions with that of the same Carnegie class from the Delaware Study. Appendix A presents the campus level details for sections and
SCHs per faculty.2
The 2012 numbers presented in this report are preliminary headcounts and are subject
to change following the review by the University of Delaware, whose process began in January
2013 and will be finalized in June 2013. The 2011 figures reported last year as preliminary were
compared with actual 2011 figures for average sections for this report and all but one institution’s
preliminary data were underestimates of the finalized counts. For average credit hours produced,
all but one institution also initially underestimated their productivity. In light of this, the 2012
preliminary numbers are likely to be conservative estimates of faculty teaching load.
2 All Faculty includes: Tenure/ Tenure Track Faculty, Other Regular Faculty, Supplemental Faculty, and Teaching As
sistants.
3
UNC Instructional Teaching Load Research Universities - Very High
Figure 1: Average Sections per FTE Faculty, 2008-12
Figure 2: Average SCHs per FTE Faculty, 2008-12
• UNC Research Universities - Very High: NC State University, UNC-Chapel Hill
• In 2010, UNC institutions in this category were on par with the Carnegie average and above the BoG Standard for average sections taught per FTE faculty.
• Across all faculty, sections taught per FTE faculty are slightly below 2011 but increased over the past five years.
• Across all faculty, SCHs increased over the past five years, down from a high in 2009.
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UNC Instructional Teaching Load Research Universities - High and Doctoral
Figure 3: Average Sections per FTE Faculty, 2008-12
Figure 4: Average SCHs per FTE Faculty, 2008-12
• UNC Research Universities - High and Doctoral: East Carolina University, NC Agricultural & Technical University, UNC Charlotte, UNC Greensboro
• For 2010, UNC institutions in this category were above the Carnegie average and BoG Standards for average sections taught per
FTE faculty.
• Sections taught per FTE faculty slightly decreased from 2011 but are above 2008.
• SCHs are below 2011, a continued decline from the high in 2009.
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UNC Instructional Teaching Load Master’s - Large and Medium
Figure 5: Average Sections per FTE Faculty, 2008-12
Figure 6: Average SCHs per FTE Faculty, 2008-12
• UNC Master’s Universities - Large and Medium: Appalachian State University, Fayetteville State University, NC Central University, UNC Pembroke, UNC Wilmington, Western Carolina University, Winston-Salem State University
• For 2010, UNC institutions in this category were slightly above the Carnegie average in sections taught per FTE faculty.
• The average number of sections taught per FTE faculty is slightly below the level from 2011.
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UNC Instructional Teaching Load Baccalaureate - Arts & Sciences and Diverse
Figure 7: Average Sections per FTE Faculty, 2008-12
•
•
•
•
Figure 8: Average SCHs per FTE Faculty, 2008-12
UNC Baccalaureate Colleges - Arts & Sciences and Diverse: Elizabeth City State University, UNC Asheville
For 2010, UNC institutions in this category were above their Carnegie average in sections taught per FTE faculty.
The average number of sections taught per FTE faculty slightly decreased from 2011 but increased from 2008.
SCHs per FTE declined in 2012 but remains above 2008.
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Appendix A
UNC Instructional Faculty Teaching Load
Fall Term for All Faculty
Fall 2008
Research-Very High
NCSU
UNC-CH
Research-High & Doctoral
ECU
NCA&T
UNCC
UNCG
Master’s-Large & Medium
ASU
FSU
NCCU
UNCP
UNCW
WCU
WSSU
Baccalaureate-A&S
UNCA
Baccalaureate-Diverse
ECSU
UNC System
Fall 2009
Fall 2010
Fall 2011
Fall 2012
(PRELIMINARY)
Avg.
Avg.
Sections
SCHs
per FTE per FTE
Faculty
Faculty
% Change Fall
2008 to Fall 2012
Avg.
Avg.
Sections
SCHs
per FTE per FTE
Faculty
Faculty
Avg.
Sections
per FTE
Faculty
Avg.
SCHs
per FTE
Faculty
Avg.
Sections
per FTE
Faculty
Avg.
SCHs
per FTE
Faculty
Avg.
Sections
per FTE
Faculty
Avg.
SCHs
per FTE
Faculty
Avg.
Sections
per FTE
Faculty
Avg.
SCHs
per FTE
Faculty
2.6
2.6
231
179
2.8
3.1
255
191
2.8
3.1
232
195
3.1
3.1
236
195
3.1
3.0
234
197
19.2
15.4
1.3
10.1
3.1
3.4
3.0
3.6
205
187
221
230
4.3
3.8
3.1
4.1
256
254
237
250
3.9
3.7
3.0
4.0
229
236
243
234
3.6
3.4
2.8
4.0
239
235
254
234
3.6
3.3
2.8
4.0
237
210
259
226
16.1
-2.9
-6.7
11.1
15.6
12.3
17.2
-1.7
3.5
3.9
4.2
3.9
3.7
3.2
3.2
223
214
218
205
242
190
183
3.5
3.9
3.8
3.9
3.8
3.1
3.0
224
241
216
203
255
219
173
3.5
3.8
4.2
3.9
4.4
3.1
3.4
219
226
230
210
234
198
168
3.6
4.0
4.6
3.9
3.7
3.1
3.5
236
233
229
200
234
227
183
3.3
4.0
4.1
3.8
3.7
3.1
3.4
211
240
216
195
231
212
166
-5.7
2.6
-2.4
-2.6
0.0
-3.1
6.3
-5.4
12.1
-0.9
-4.9
-4.5
11.6
-9.3
3.7
186
4.5
205
4.4
200
4.5
214
4.2
191
13.5
2.7
4.0
3.2
203
209
4.3
3.5
232
230
4.0
3.5
209
220
4.2
3.5
199
227
4.4
3.4
205
221
10.0
6.3
1.0
5.7
Source:The Delaware Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity; GR123S.G
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